Costs of Fuel Cells

The installation costs of fuel cells are currently the main barrier to commercialization. The cost of installing a fuel cell hybrid system is not well known. In order to determine it one has to hold bilateral talks with the manufacturers and the installation cost is often a result of negotiations. Sample data are shown in Table 1.5. In the cases of PEMFC and PAFC the costs are increased because of the expensive catalysts (platinum) needed. 

Fuel cells are an expensive technology nowadays. To show how great the gap is with other power generation technologies, a comparison of installation costs of fuel cells and other technologies is shown in Fig. 1.16. 

The installation costs are naturally not the only factor in the investment analysis, others being maintenance and fuel costs. Since the high temperature fuel cell market is not mature, the only comparison that can be made is with PAFCs which reached the commercial stage a few decades ago. A comparison was made in relation to the gas turbine system, with an Internal Combustion (IC) engine also presented (see Fig. 1.17). 

Fuel cell type Installation costs /kW Operation costs /kW/year 

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In the near term, hydrogen is likely to be made from fossil fuel sources. The annual operating costs of fuel cell power are likely to be higher than those of the competition in the foreseeable future. 

Based on input assumptions to be described below, these two models are used to calculate the costs of fuel-cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure and estimate the benefits in terms of reductions in C02 emissions and oil consumption. 

Today, the power train costs of fuel-cell vehicles are still far from being competitive. They have the largest influence on the economic efficiency of hydrogen use in the transport sector and the greatest challenge is to drastically reduce fuel-cell costs from currently more than 2000/kW to less than 100/kW for passenger cars. On the other hand, fuel-cell drive systems offer totally new design opportunities for... 

One method proposed for estimating the cost of fuel cell power plants is to calculate distributive (bulk) costs as a function of the equipment cost using established factors based on conventional generating technologies. When applied in such a way as to compensate for the differences associated with a fuel cell plant, this approach can yield reasonable results. NETL has elected, based on the international prominence of the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE), to utilize this approach in estimating the costs for fuel cell/turbine power plant systems currently under study. 

L.L. Pinkerton, "Express Method for Estimating the Cost of Fuel Cell Plants," 1998 Fuel Cell Seminar, November 16-19, 1998, Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, California. 

As the costs of fuel cells go down, more consumers will be able to afford to buy them. If advances in hydrogen production can keep pace,... 

All fuel cells can be operated on pure hydrogen and some are reported to work on methanol and hydrocarbon fuels. In the event of fuel cells becoming price-competitive with turbines, large gas-fired power plants could adopt this technology (Figure 18.5). Such commercialization would be an important step in driving down the cost of fuel cell technology. 

In the proton-emitting membrane or proton electrolyte membrane (PEM) design, the membrane electrode assembly consists of the anode and cathode, which are provided with a very thin layer of catalyst, bonded to either side of the proton exchange membrane. With the help of the catalyst, the H2 at the anode splits into a proton and an electron, while Oz enters at the cathode. On the inside of the porous anode is a thin platinum catalyst layer. When H2 reaches this layer, it separates into protons (H2 ions) and electrons. One of the reasons why the cost of fuel cells is still high is because the cost of the platinum catalyst is rising. One ounce of platinum cost 361 in 1999 and increased to 1,521 in 2007. 

The cost at which fuel cells will become competitive to conventional systems is determined by the corresponding costs of the competing technologies. Due to their higher efficiencies, fuel cells can withstand 20-30% higher capital costs than other distributed systems, and this difference increases for smaller systems. For domestic apphcations (up to 5 kW), the high prices of household electricity is estimated to create an allowable costs of fuel cells up to 2000 /kWe (Pehnt et al., 2004 Hawkes et al., 2005). 

This approach would also potentially have two other advantages over current technology. First, if platinum loadings could be reduced, it could produce a welcome reduction in the capital cost of fuel cell catalysts. In recent years, prices for platinum have significantly exceeded those for gold... 

The technological hurdles in the development of hydrogen as an alternative energy source are related mostly to the costs of and practical barriers to building adequate infrastructure for production and storage of hydrogen. The high cost of fuel cells is another hurdle. 

The cost of fuel cell systems is partly the cost of vehicles and building-based systems and in a wider context the total cost of a hydrogen economy with production, various types of usage and infrastructure such as storage and transmission, distribution and filling outlets. 

Moreover, PEMFC systems fed by pure hydrogen show the highest relative performance in terms of system dynamics, costs of fuel cells (the precious metal loading of anode is minimum), and in terms of stack and system power densities, which result 1.3 and 0.6 kW/1, respectively [2, 3]. 

A hydrogen economy may be jump started with distributed power stationary fuel cells that generate on-site power in critical areas, schools, apartment buildings or hospitals. The cost of fuel cells would have to... 

The federal government offers a 1,000/kW subsidy to encourage the use of fuel cells. Several states, including New Jersey, Connecticut and California also offer subsidies. Some of these exceed 2,000/kW to reduce the cost of fuel cell systems. Other subsidies can also be important in the commercialization of stationary fuel cells. 

The central problem inhibiting a wider market penetration of fuel cells is the high manufacturing costs. The costs of fuel cells were approximately 20,000 Euro per kilowatt power in 2002 [2]. 

One Department of Energy study in 2003 estimated that platinum accounted for 10-15% of overall cost of a fuel cell production cost [36], Any savings in printing Pt or its alloys will have direct impact on the overall production cost of fuel cells. 

In order to reduce the material costs of fuel cells to meet automotive cost targets, it is necessary to lower the total amount of precious metals in the system [3]. There are several ways to reduce the amount of platinum required to deliver a unit of net power from a fuel cell power plant (1) reducing parasitic losses at the power plant level, (2) increasing the... 

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